"They whom God hath endued with insight will readily recognize that the precepts laid down by God constitute the highest means for the maintenance of order in the world and the security of its peoples."

"the maintenance of order in the world" translates naz.m al-`alam.Naz.ama means to set in order. The nineteenth century context of the
term includes very importantly the "tanzimat" reforms of the Ottoman
Empire. Tanzim is derived from from the intensive form of naz.ama, and
means "reform, re-organization." The -at is an Arabic feminine plural.
The entire period from 1826 to 1878 (and for some, even later) is
characterized by Ottoman reformers as the Tanzimat. These reforms
eliminated many semi-feudal practices, broke up guilds, abolished the
remnants of the slave-army, and led to greater centralization of
governmental and bureaucratic power. The Reform Rescript (islahat
fermani) of 1856, after the Crimean War, recognized non-Muslim subjects
of the Ottoman Empire as full citizens, and eliminated the legal
disabilities Islamic law had placed upon Christians and Jews as
"protected" (dhimmi) minorities.

One context for this verse then, is that Baha'u'llah is aligning His
revelation with the progressive reform (nazm, tanzim) of Islamic law and
society. And many of his laws accord with the Tanzimat (there is also no
category of "protected religious minority" in Baha'i law--rather there is
freedom of conscience and full civil rights for all).

But, of course, he is also critiquing the efforts of reformers by
insisting that the ultimate foundation for *successful* reform must be
this revelation from God. We have seen in the past 15 years how all the
work of persons analogous to the Tanzimat reformers and their successors
has in some countries been swept away by Islamic revivalists. Iran and
Sudan, e.g., now once again have dhimmis or "protected" minorities, and
Baha'is are persecuted as having no place in Islamic law.

It is clear in the Tablet to the Kings (c. late 1867, Edirne) that
Baha'u'llah found quite annoying the Ottoman elite's pride in their
Tanzimat, their lurch toward positivism, and their conviction that
everything was just wonderful. He on the other hand thought the Tanzimat
(which he appears to have referred to as the usul or "principles" of
the Ottomans) did not go nearly far enough. They did not counter-act
increasing materialism, militarism, class stratification, etc. Later, in
1868, Baha'u'llah started criticizing the Ottoman status quo for not
having gone far enough in the direction of parliamentary democracy (which
Aali and Fuad Pasha and Sultan Abdulaziz all opposed). Remember that
Baha'u'llah had been in the Ottoman empire since 1853; had been
discussing politics with Ottoman notables in Baghdad coffehouses and
Edirne private homes; had been reading the newspapers of the day and
probably some printed books of a reformist nature; and in general can be
thought of as having a serious context in Ottoman intellectual history.
Like Rousseau, who both contributed to and critiqued from within European
modernity, Baha'u'llah affirmed key elements of Ottoman modernity while
powerful critiquing others. Still, there is no doubt, in the contest
between reformist government and its enemies among the Muslim clergy and
reactionary nobles, where Baha'u'llah's sympathies lay.

I am not saying that the *only* context for the phrase "order of the
world" is the Tanzimat reforms, but that it strikes me as *an* important
context. I also think the English, in using "maintenance" is being too
conservative; "ordering the world" can be a dynamic and processual activity.

[For those interested in this context, I recommend Bernard Lewis, The
Emergence of Modern Turkey (in paper); Serif Mardin, The Young
Ottomans; and Bernard Lewis The Political Language of Islam. Ami
Ayalon's book on changes in the meaning of Arabic political vocabulary in
the 19th century is also important.